Arctic vagabonds: French family makes home on polar yacht

By Eoghan Macguire, for CNN

Updated 11:21 AM ET, Fri February 1, 2013

French family living in the arctic10 photos

Icy adventures – The Brossier family wrap up warm in front of their yacht, Le Vagabond. The family have spent the last eight winters living and carrying out research work in the northern polar regions.

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French family living in the arctic10 photos

Icy adventures – Le Vagabond is a 15-meter polar-yacht, specially equipped to sail in the extreme cold and hold enough heat, food and living supplies for more than a year.

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French family living in the arctic10 photos

Icy adventures – Eric Brossier stands atop the pack ice in Spitzbergen, Norway, alongside his wife, France, and daughter, Leonie, in the winter of 2008. The family have since dropped anchor and been enveloped by ice in the far north of Canada and Greenland.

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Icy adventures – The Brossier family aboard their polar vessel, Le Vagabond. Eldest daughter Leonie (right) was only 12 days old the first time she boarded the vessel.

Icy adventures – The imposing sight of polar bear on its hind legs, as snapped by Eric Brossier. The giant Arctic creatures are a common sight alongside the likes of whales, walruses and seals, Brossier said.

Icy adventures – Eric Brossier prepares scientific equipment on the ice just outside Grise Fiord. Brossier's work sees him measure ocean currents, the density of sea ice and weather patterns across large areas of the Canadian Arctic.

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Icy adventures – Eric Brossier pulls a sled through the snow near Grise Fiord. This year marks the first time his family have spent the winter months close to a human settlement.

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Story highlights

Eric Brossier is a French oceanographer living aboard a yacht in the Canadian Arctic with his young family

The Brossiers have spent the past eight winters aboard their boat in the northern polar regions

This winter marks the first time the family has set up camp close to an Inuit community

Raising a young family while juggling a career is a tough act to master at the best of times.

Doing so aboard a 15-meter yacht, hemmed in by the thick ocean ice of one of the harshest environments on earth must surely complicate matters a whole lot more.

But Eric Brossier wouldn't have it any other way.

The French oceanographer and his wife, France, have spent the past eight winters happily recording scientific data across the northern polar-regions while living aboard a specially equipped yacht fittingly called Le Vagabond.

Since 2007, the couple have been accompanied by their eldest daughter, Leonie (now six) and, since 2009, her younger sister Aurora (now three).

"It's not an ordinary life," he explained from the lower deck of the vessel-come-family home. "Outside is minus 27 degrees and we won't see the sun for at least a few more weeks.

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"[But we] love the wildlife, the mountains, sailing in between the ice, the mix of pack ice drifting with icebergs next to glaciers," he added.

Although Grise Fiord represents the most northerly civilian settlement in North America, Brossier explains that the town is still privy to the comforts of contemporary western life.

Homes have central heating, running water and access to the internet, with Facebook being one of the most popular modes of communication -- a far cry from the spartan existence of Inuit communities in Greenland and northern Russia.

Yet these modern trappings provide the Brossiers with a happy medium between the Arctic wilderness the family so adores, suitable schooling facilities and viable long-term research work.

Brossier says his current assignment is based around the earth's changing climate. He is paid to measure the thickness of the winter ice, ocean currents and weather patterns in and around Grise Fiord for research institutions in Toronto and Vancouver.

In previous years however, he has acted as a guide for television and documentary crews.

"We decide where to go according to the job offered to us or the measurements we have to take," he said.

"If we can find such projects in the future that meet our work needs and the needs of our children then we may be able to carry on for five or ten years," he added.

But while enthusiastic about adventures the future may hold, Brossier is aware that others -- especially those with young children -- may find his nomadic lifestyle in the Arctic chill less than appealing.

He admits there are things he misses from time to time but would advise any avid scientist, sailor or adventurer keen to experience the far north to set sail and experience it for themselves.

"We miss our friends and families and when we go back to France for a few weeks every year that is what we like to see first," he said. "So is sitting in the sun and eating some French cheese and fresh fruit.

"But we don't miss it all that much. If we really missed something too much we wouldn't have been able to carry this life for such a long time."